State Concerned About OTB Security

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ New York state might have avoided the Breeders' Cup betting scandal if it had licensed off-track betting workers, the state's top racing regulator said Wednesday.

New York tried for years to license OTB workers and to order OTB security audits, but the legislative proposals, already in place at thoroughbred and harness race tracks, has been successfully opposed by lobbyists, said Michael Hoblock, chairman of the state Racing and Wagering Board.

Licensing of OTB workers and independent computer companies that help handle bets nationwide would expand the state regulator's jurisdiction into the hiring and performance of OTB employees, officials said.

"It's a great lobby," Hoblock said prior to a monthly meeting of his board Wednesday.

On Tuesday, three former fraternity brothers were charged with using an automated telephone betting account with Catskill OTB and a computer to manipulate bets that paid $3 million.

One of the suspects, a senior programmer with the Autotote computer wagering company, is accused of connecting his company computer in Delaware to an OTB computer in Poughkeepsie to change a bet after races, according to the federal complaint.

Hoblock said the state board has been studying the security of OTB wagering for two years, when use of automated accounts began growing faster than wagering at parlors or tracks.

Donald Groth, president of the Catskill Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., said the proposals would be expensive, probably unnecessary and wouldn't have avoided the scandal.

"A human being might choose to cheat somebody across the betting window, or at an OTB, or at a bank," Groth said. "I think more bureaucracy isn't what's needed."

Under state law, independent off-track betting agencies run by boards of local political appointees. Increasingly, these bets are placed through automated telephone betting accounts, but Hoblock said OTBs aren't required to reveal how much of the betting handle is done through those accounts.

"We've been looking at the whole issue of account wagering," Hoblock said. "One of the reasons is the simulcasting of horse racing has grown tremendously over the last several years to the point where it's now probably 85, 90 percent" of wagering. "The investment in technology has not kept up with the expansion."

In a related announcement, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) said Tuesday it will stop taking bets from its simulcast betting sites when the first horse enters the starting gate. The new policy begins Dec. 4 for NYRA, which operates thoroughbred tracks under a state franchise.

"This insures that virtually all money wagered off track will be in our system before the start of each race," NYRA Chairman Barry Schwartz said. Wagering at tracks will continue to be accepted until the race starts.